I fully expected this ESPN piece on Corch to be your typical eye-roller. Instead, I read it and found it profoundly sad. This, in particular, is as good a summary of the man as you’ll see:

This is the difficult calculus of Meyer’s future, of any Type A extremist who longs for balance. They want the old results, without paying the old costs, and while they’ll feel guilty about not changing, they’ll feel empty without the success. He wants peace and wins, which is a short walk from thinking they are the same.

Anybody think things will play out in Columbus any differently for Meyer than they did in Gainesville? I have a hard time seeing it.

Another coach is on the phone, asking for advice about a player who got into trouble. Meyer gives his honest answer, a window into the murky, shifting world of big-time athletics, into how nobody emerges from the highest level of anything with every part of himself intact.

The first year at Bowling Green, Meyer tells him, he’d have cut his losses. His fifth year at Florida, when he needed to win every game, he’d have kept him on the team.

Like this:

13 responses to ““You’re going.””

blech. I’d give more credibility to Meyer’s tortured soul if he wasn’t a bloodlessly ambitious coach bot who magnified every slight to that of a vendetta and hadn’t lied to his kids. Urban Meyer’s life and career is about Urban Meyer, and no ESPN piece is going to make me think he’s really a sad clown on the inside.

This dichotomy between discipline and winning is tough, but it is certainly not unique to football coaching. People are confronted with these sorts of decisions all the time. I think it is wise to use Meyer’s Florida teams as an example of what happens when winning comes ahead of everything else. You forfeit the soul of your program, and it crumbles when the going gets tough.

I certainly don’t think everything Richt does is saintly or right or just, and I think he would agree with me on that. But, I do appreciate the fact that, at least publicly, he doesn’t sacrifice the discipline of his team for an extra win here or there. Spurrier even admits as much. He can always count on UGA having suspensions, but curiously doesn’t mention anyone else having these issues *cough*Stephen Garcia’s eight chance*cough*. Although Richt hasn’t won at the highest level, he has won two SEC titles, and made four SECC appearances. I think its as close to having your cake and eating it, too that one can get in the SEC.

What I don’t have an answer for: How can a coach that so publicly disciplines his players (up to this point) continue to have such a discipline problem on his team?

This dichotomy between discipline and winning is tough, but it is certainly not unique to football coaching. People are confronted with these sorts of decisions all the time.

Exactly. I know lots of people that have sacrificed their marriages and relationships with their kids in order to be successful at their job. I enjoyed this piece because it at least made Meyer look human. Doesn’t mean I have to like him, but I can certainly empathize with him now.

We’ll never know the WHOLE story of what went down with Urban at Florida. I have heard from multiple people that I trust that he and Foley had some serious issues and that also after a while all the players realized that he lied right to their faces during recruiting. I do find it ironic that the man that texted a NCAA rule into existence longs with nostalgia for a simpler time of recruiting.

One thing is absolutely positive from this though: McGarrity’s comment to Richt that Florida was out-working him was 100% dead-on.

I found this article really sad too. The title of the post was the worst part of it for me. I thought it was great journalism, if a little overwrought at times (but considering the author, that is what you get most days). I didn’t think it painted Meyer as sympathetic at all, quite the contrary. And it completely skipped over the public humiliation he put his family through with the unretirement.

If anyone could pull it off, I Urban is probably the best candidate, but I think he did not wait long enough in between gigs. The fact that tOSU came open so soon after his UF departure probably was bad thing.

Dick Vermeil was someone who walked away and then came back to enjoy even greater success when he returned. When he came back Vermeil acknowledged he was different type of coach than he was before he left the game. But Vermeil took 10-15 years between gigs … Urban took 11 mos.

I read about Corch’s rigid demanding father a few years ago in SI. That’s too bad, but it doesn’t explain Corch’s dishonesty, vindictiveness, and utter insincerity. Would somebody offer me a redeeming virtue besides winning.

What I got out of this article is that Urban Meyer has lost his edge. Look for Ohio State to regularly have winning seasons, 8-4/9-3 type teams but no conference championships and certainly no natties. He’ll be fired/forced out within 7 years.